Once Banned in Cuba, the Beatles Have Finally Arrived

Fifty years after they made a huge splash on the Ed Sullivan show and became an international sensation, the Beatles have finally arrived in Cuba.

The “Strawberry Fields” band is the theme behind a new bar in Cuba called Yellow Submarine, according to The New York Times. In the dimly lit room, filled with drawing of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, they honor a group once so forbidden on the island even listening to the music could have led to arrest.

But every night since March, Cubans in Havana have been making up for lost time.

They wait in long lines to get into the club, where a band belts out such Fab Four classics such as “Let It Be” and “Can’t Buy Me Love.”

“You don’t understand,” Marisa Valdes, 50, told the Times. “This music, it used to be banned!”

Once considered too American, the Beatles were banned on the island in the 1960s and 1970s and listening to the music was almost treasonous. But over the years, things have changed.

“If there’s no Beatles, there’s no rock ’n’ roll,” Guille Vilar, co-creator of the bar told the paper. “This is music created with authenticity.”

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Once Banned in Cuba, the Beatles Have Finally Arrived

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